Tektro IO, any hope at all?

Clark3y

So, a friend has just been bought a used bike as a gift which is currently residing at mine.
We gave it the once over last night and everything seems tip top, except for the brakes.
It has these Tektro IO cable discs on it and they are absolutely dire, dangerously poor level of braking. The pads were looking quite glazed so sanded them down and they looked good, sanded the discs a bit too. This didn't seem to make much difference at all. I'll try doing a few more stops with them later and see if things improve at all.
Is there anything else I can do though, are these brakes just total no hopers?

nicklouse

new cables. and set them up and then bed then in.

.blitz

The Chucker had some cable Tektros I used them with XT v-brake levers. They were pretty good - smooth, quite powerful with good modulation just harder to pull than hydraulics.

The cable only actuates one of the pads - the other is fixed but can be adjusted in/out with a hex key - and it was fairly important to have this operating sweetly and balanced so that the moving pad wasn't doing all the work.

Clark3y

I think the pad should be set ok, I set it so its *just* clear of the disc, it was rubbing slightly before.

BorisSpencer

I had these on my old Mongoose and my brother still uses his.
Good brakes if they're set up properly.
As .blitz said adjust the standing pad from inside the wheel, but also you have to move the whole calliper across from time to time to take up the wear in the moving pad. Otherwise you end up pulling the kinked cable into the outer.

mattv

As cable discs go, they are pretty good when set up right.

z0tty

try give the pads a good heating. i did this yesterday on both my lads winter work bikes.. the rear brakes on both bikes had suffered fairly bad.. road grim/grease/salt aswell as the excess amounts of wet lube the chucked on there (awww bless at least they tried lol.. anyways. took boh pads out and put them in the over for a while,, nice n hot they got lol.. one one set padeven bubbled the oil out of its self,, anyways once the smoke/steam died down i took them out and allowed them to cool.. rubs the faces together to remove glazing then sprayed with brake cleaner and allowed to dry (i may have set em on fire at this point but dont quote me on that LOL).. any ways.. threw em back in and jobs a good un.. no more squeeling.. nice firm feel to the brakes, and they stop great.. worth a try!!

z0tty

try give the pads a good heating. i did this yesterday on both my lads winter work bikes.. the rear brakes on both bikes had suffered fairly bad.. road grime/grease/salt aswell as the excess amounts of wet lube they chucked on there (awww bless at least they tried lol).. anyways. took both bikes pads out and put them in the over for a while,, nice n hot they got lol.. one pad even bubbled oil out of its self,, anyways once the smoke/steam died down i took them out and allowed them to cool.. rubs the faces together to remove glazing then sprayed with brake cleaner and allowed to dry (i may have set em on fire at this point but dont quote me on that LOL.. any ways.. threw em back in and jobs a good un.. no more squeeling.. nice firm feel to the brakes, and they stop great.. worth a try!!

nicklouse

z0tty
I just hop it was not the adhesive that was bubbling out.

please fit new pads to one end of each bike, at least they may have a chance of stopping the bike when the friction material decides to com away from the backing plate.

z0tty

certainly wasnt.. it was the one pad the was clealry covered in oil and there was 4 in total. this is a trick ive done for years as a mechanic and yet to have a problem in any way.. pads.. designed to get hot ya know

ps.. only did the rears .. we always put new in the front and move the old ones to the rears if they still have life in them.;)

mattv

Brake pads are often tested upto 300-400 degrees C, so a quick 200 will be fine. Heard of it before too, but not tried it.

cooldad

Doubt bike pads are ever expected or designed to get anywhere near 400 degrees.

mattv

Ever seen discs glowing red hot? It takes about 400 degrees to see red in total darkness. So yes, they do often get exposed to that on the bigger DH rigs and all pads have to withstand more.

nickel

I had tektro novelas (fairly comparable to ios i think) on my bike, used xt cables with Avid Fr5 levers and they worked pretty well, though they did squeel like hell at times though.